In her powerful afterword to this edited collection, Irish gender historian Maria Luddy weaves in two accounts. The first is of a murder catalysed by shame over a child pregnancy in 1935. The second is a personal account of her paternal aunt who spent fifty-eight years in St Finbarr’s Hospital, dying there in 2002. Both accounts, Luddy asserts, are part of the history of ‘lost Irish women’, whose voices and experiences cannot and will not be accessed. Jennifer Redmond and Mary McAuliffe’s edited collection is a formidable attempt at capturing such ‘lost’ experiences and is a critical contribution to the history of gender and sexuality in Ireland. This collection, of course, builds on decades of scholarship by pioneering Irish women’s historians, but the chapters travel into innovative areas and point to exciting new avenues and archives for further scholarly inquiry. I was struck by the wide range of themes covered by the fifteen chapters in this volume but also the coherence of the collection in drawing together subjects such as gender dynamics, resistance, repression, activism, intimacy, shame and the politicisation of bodies. In addition, several chapters explore the challenges and opportunities of Irish archives for historians of gender and sexuality.

The chapters are organised thematically into six sections. The first section, on sexuality and relationships, includes chapters by Maeve O’Riordan (on the elite courtship of Mabel Smyly and Dermod O’Brien) and Mary McAuliffe (on the relationship between Dr Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen). McAuliffe’s chapter makes an important contribution to our understandings of the revolutionary period and female same-sex relationships in early-twentieth-century Ireland. Through close readings of Lynn’s diaries with what she calls a ‘queer eye’, McAuliffe highlights the love and care of their relationship, their day-to-day lives, Lynn’s yearning for ffrench-Mullen when they were apart and after her death, and the pair’s wider circle of friendships. The book’s second section examines gender and institutionalisation, with contributions by Conor Reidy (gender and the State Inebriate Reformatory), Leanne McCormick, Sean O’Connell and John Privilege (mother and baby institutions in Northern Ireland) and Caitlin O’Neill and Jennifer Redmond (unmarried motherhood and Sean Ross Abbey). Recognising the limitations of the controversial 2021 final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters (COIMBH), O’Neill and Redmond draw on four testimonies included in the report from women in Sean Ross. Through careful reading of these testimonies, the chapter provides insights into the inhumane treatment of the women in Sean Ross and shows the historical value of these women’s accounts. Using wider evidence, the authors also suggest, significantly, and in contrast with the COIMBH’s findings, that Sean Ross Abbey benefited financially from the adoption of children born there.

The third section explores the politics of bodies, with contributions by Jennifer Redmond (the sexual politics of emigrant bodies), Tanya Ní Mhuirthile (intersex experiences), Theresa O’Keefe (strip searches in the north of Ireland) and Sinead Kennedy (the backlash towards feminism in the 1980s). Ní Mhuirthile’s highly original contribution explores the history of definitions of intersex in Irish law and individuals’ lived experiences. Ní Mhuirthile shows that while Irish law recognises the existence of intersex people and their right to gender recognition, it does not protect them from non-consensual medical interventions. The fourth section on women and work includes chapters by Antonia Hart (women and pawnbroking) and Deirdre Foley. Foley’s chapter on women’s work, maternity leave and childcare in Ireland from 1969-81 is a much-needed intervention in this area. Drawing on oral histories, the papers of women’s groups, and official and media records, it shows that while opportunities for women in the workplace were increasing in this period, ‘the historical dominance of the male breadwinner model limited the scope of what was possible for all women’ (166), and particularly for working mothers.

The fifth section explores ‘Sexual politics and activism’, with contributions by Elizabeth Kiely (sex education) and Mary Muldowney (pro-choice activism). Kiely’s chapter draws primarily on the letters pages of newspapers to unpack reactions to the introduction of the first formal programme on Relationships and Sexuality Education (R.S.E.) in Irish schools and its subsequent review. Kiely’s analysis of these letters highlights concerns around children’s ‘innocence’, competing discourses on the Irish family and nation, and whether the school was an appropriate site for sex education. Given contemporary debates surrounding sex education, and particularly the inclusion of discussion of gender identity, Kiely’s chapter is a timely contribution. Muldowney’s detailed overview of Irish abortion rights activism is a reminder of the fraught road leading to repeal in 2018 and demonstrates that there is still further work to be done by abortion rights campaigners.

The final section explores the theme of personal reflections and new directions with contributions by Orla Egan (the Cork LGBT Archive and lesbian activism in Cork) and Sara R. Phillips (the Irish trans movement). While there has been important research on LGBT activism and relationships, much of this scholarship has tended to focus on gay men’s experiences. These two chapters are, therefore, significant interventions. Egan provides an evocative account of the myriad forms of lesbian community-building and activism in Cork before reflecting on the Cork LGBT archive, an important repository for the preservation of the history and heritage of the Cork LGBT community. Phillips details the activism of Dublin’s first trans group, Friends of Eon, which was formed in 1977, the individual activism of Irish trans people such as Dr Lydia Foy and Rebecca (Tallon) de Havilland, as well as charting changes in legal recognition and the foundation of the Trans Equality Network Ireland (TENI).

Without doubt, Irish gender history has come of age. This collection demonstrates the breadth of innovative research happening in this field and implicitly shows the importance of an understanding of this history to debates in society today. The collection will be extremely useful for those of us who teach on the history of gender and sexuality in modern Ireland and is likely to generate new scholarship in this area.